Sullivan joins Verve to roll out their ‘Holy Sh*t’ insights proposition in New York

In Internet terms, 21 years feels like centuries – it’s time enough for business empires to rise and fall and for new technologies to turn industries on their heads multiple times over.

So how do you build a business that lasts in such a volatile and fast-moving environment? Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, offers one of the keys to longevity: “The secret…is to focus on the things that don’t change in your business.”

We might not have articulated it as brilliantly as he does, but that principle is how we’ve managed to survive and grow in an always-changing industry.

Tactics and tools evolve, but the principles of robust marketing, communications, brand and advertising remain constant. It’s all about delivering campaigns and executions that help our clients tell their stories, share their purpose and build their brands.

How we did it

Here are some of the ways we’ve tried to ensure the sustainability of our business over the years:

1. Assembling a powerhouse of talent
2. Keeping up with industry trends, technologies, and best practices
3. Understanding clients’ business
4. Building relationships for the long term
5. Centring on a purpose

Staying focused on the fundamentals

Our industry has never stopped changing, and we face some of the most challenging and exciting disruptions we’ve encountered yet. Competition for new accounts is fierce, budgets are tight, and the next wave of technology-driven change is here in the form of generative artificial intelligence (AI). We’re continuously needing to upskill in new ways of working.

On the upside, the growing focus on factors like diversity and inclusion as well as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) space plays to our strengths. What won’t change for us is our focus on growing with our clients and offering them a single-stop solution for their marketing needs. Here’s to another 21 years of showing that commercially successful work can be good for the world as well.